What a Difference a Week Makes

Newsletter Issue #70

As I wrote a recent post about writers and shame, I paused to lift my eyes from my typewriter and gaze out my window onto the street below, as writers do. I couldn’t help but wonder:

“Are my feelings at least partly grounded in the fact that I’m querying my own book and not having much luck so far? Maybe. Probably. Perhaps I can’t be objective enough to consider the issue from all sides as an aspiring debut novelist without a platform, an agent, or a book deal. Perhaps it’s all sour grapes on my part.”

Exactly one week later, in a serendipitous turn of events, I met with the publisher and acquisitions editor at an independent press, and two days later, I signed with them. My debut novel will be published in fall 2027.

I didn’t see it coming—it seemed to have happened overnight—but at the same time, it was the result of seeds I’ve been planting for many years. You never know when one of those seeds will bear fruit. Which is why it’s so important for us to keep going. We never know what tomorrow will bring, so we can’t give up. On the one hand, this is a part of the natural trajectory when one starts writing a book. This is where my work over the last many years was supposed to eventually lead, so big deal. On the other hand, this is the culmination of a lifelong dream, so … HUGE DEAL.

The day after I signed the contract, I went to a local bookstore to check out the real estate where my book will sit on the shelf. Not too shabby for Leanne. :)

Here’s something unexpected, though: As soon as I knew, my first thought, for a split second, was to call my mom.

My mom died in 1995, when I was only 34 years old and she was only 52. When she was alive, we talked on the phone almost every day. After she passed, I experienced that phenomenon often at first—something good (or bad) would happen in my life, and my first thought would be to call my mom. Then I would remember that I couldn’t—she wasn’t there anymore. But I hadn’t experienced that for close to 30 years, until a couple of weeks ago.

On June 26th, I had a really good call with a publisher and an acquisitions editor. It was exactly the kind of call I’d hope to have with someone someday—two publishing industry professionals who love my book, and who told me all the specific reasons why they love it, and who have a vision for it, and who are willing to bet on the fact that readers will love it, too. They shared their experience of reading it (so cool!), and they shared that they are excited about publishing it. At the end of the call, they asked if they could send me a contract to review. I said yes, and I already knew that, unless the contract had something really weird or wrong in it, these were my people, and I was all in. My gut told me, yes, this is it. Reader, the contract was fine, and I signed it.

When I got off the call that day, I stood up from my desk, walked out of my office, and decided to call my mom. For just the briefest, most infinitesimal flash of time.

I couldn’t share my news with my mom, of course, but as soon as that sad realization hit me, a memory quickly followed: My mom was sitting at the kitchen table of a house we lived in, on Cabrillo Avenue in Salinas. I was 16 years old, and my mom was reading a short story I’d written. “This is good,” she said. “You should be a writer.” I like to think the instinct to call my mom and the memory that suddenly followed were my mom’s way of reaching out to me to say, “I’m here. I know. I’ve always known. And I’m proud of you.”

Friends, I can’t wait to finally share my book with you.

Keep going.

XOXO

Leanne

P.S. Fall 1971. I was eating breakfast at our kitchen table in Coronado, California, when my mom brought the newspaper in and sat down next to me. She wanted to break the news before I heard it from someone else. Bobby Sherman had married a girl named Patti. I was in 6th grade, and I was devastated. My mom didn’t ridicule me or patronize me. She understood that I was a little girl with big feelings. A little girl who was sure Bobby Sherman would be her husband someday. You may have guessed it: Reader, I never married Bobby Sherman. But I had a big crush on him as a preteen and admired him as an adult—he walked away from fame and fortune quite early on to become a paramedic and a philanthropist. I’m sad to say, my first love, Bobby Sherman, passed away on June 24th. I wish my mom had been here to break the news.

“Don’t give up before the miracle happens.”

—Fannie Flagg

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

GOLDEN QUILL CONTEST DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JULY 15TH!
In case you’ve been lagging, the Golden Quill Writing Contest deadline has been extended to July 15th! Send your fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for a chance to win a cash prize and publication in the 2025 issue of The NightWriter Review. This year’s judges are Juliet McDaniel, whose debut novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie is the book upon which the hit Apple TV+ series Palm Royale is based; Deanne Stillman, author of many nonfiction books, including Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave; and SLO County Poet Laureate Caleb Nichols, author of Teems///\Recedes.

“If there’s any single talent a writer needs, it’s persistence. If you can keep at your writing and you can learn as you write, you can tell any story you want to tell.”

—Octavia Butler

WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO

My 4-year-old granddaughter Louise is very into music. When I babysat recently, we had a jam session, me on my drum and her on her ukulele. Then we switched instruments. Then she wanted to introduce me to one of her favorite bands, The Beatles, so she got out her little music player and played some songs for me. She was surprised I knew all the words to “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” I was not surprised she knew all the words to “Blackbird.” She sings and plays it on the little guitar I gave her last Christmas. So cute.

P.S. My favorite episode of Beat Bugs is “Paperback Writer.” One of the characters, Kumi, writes a book and then suffers major imposter syndrome when she compares her book to those her friends have written. I relate.

After Lou and I finished playing, we went out for sushi and mochi (chocolate and mango). On the way to dinner, she wanted to listen to the Trolls soundtrack. I knew the words to this one, too.

“Writing is part intuition and part trial and error, but mostly it’s very hard work.”

—Cheryl Strayed

WHAT I’VE BEEN WATCHING

I’m so mad at myself for having binge-watched all the episodes of The Bear in one week. Now I have to wait … what? A year? I love everything about the show, but I have to say, what I love most is Jamie Lee Curtis’s performance as Donna Berzatto. She is incredible in the role. On top of that, I have long loved Jaime Lee Curtis as a human being. I love that she seems exceedingly kind, generous, and upbeat, that she embraces and leans into being a woman of a certain age, and that she is absolutely crushing it at this stage of her career. She is always grateful and humble—I love this interview she did for Variety after her Emmy win: Jamie Lee Curtis on Her Emmy Win for ‘The Bear’: ‘I’m the Luckiest Girl in the World’. If Christopher Guest had to marry someone other than me, I’m glad it was Jamie Lee Curtis.

Photo credit: Still from The Bear on FX.

Speaking of Christopher Guest, I was at brunch with my family on Saturday morning, and to my surprise, my grandkids Gavin (20), Hunter (19), and Abigail (17) agreed to accompany me to the limited 41st anniversary screening of This Is Spinal Tap (1984) at our local movie theater. We went Sunday night. I was worried they wouldn’t like it or get it, but then I remembered I was 23 when I first saw it, so I was close to the age they are now. I crossed my fingers. Reader, they loved it. Their favorite parts: when bassist Derek Smalls gets trapped in a pod onstage; lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel showing off his guitar collection and his amp that goes to 11; and David St. Hubbins’ girlfriend saying “Dubly” instead of “Dolby.” It was a really cool moment sharing this part of pop culture from my youth with my grandchildren. It made me so happy—I felt like I was on a high when I got home. We are making plans to see Spinal Tap II together when it comes out September 21st, and they had me cracking up in the parking lot after the movie, speculating on what might happen to the band members in the sequel. Now, they’re dropping Spinal Tap GIFs in the family chat. :)

Photo credit: Still from This Is Spinal Tap, Spinal Tap Productions.

“Writing a book, just like building a library, is a sheer act of sheer defiance. It is a declaration that you believe in the persistence of memory.”

—Susan Orlean, The Library Book

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!

Better Off Dead: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin Volume 1 (coming 8/25/25)
Cover reveal! My short story “Lullaby” will appear in this crime fiction anthology. It was a challenge to write a noir story inspired by my favorite Elton John/Bernie Taupin collab—“Your Song”—but I think I pulled it off! The Kindle edition is available for preorder now, and the print edition will be available for preorder soon.

Absolute Pleasure: Queer Perspectives on Rocky Horror (coming 9/16/2025)
This anthology includes my friend Trey Burnette’s piece “A Rather Tender Subject.” The essays in Absolute Pleasure … explore … [the] complicated legacy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, along with queer and trans joy, sexuality, family, generational understandings of queerness, and what we do with our problematic faves.

Vicious Cycle: A Thriller (Corey in Los Angeles) (coming 10/21/2025)
The debut novel by my friend Jaime Parker Stickle. A former reporter gets a new spin on life in this gripping debut from author Jaime Parker Stickle, whose psychological roller-coaster ride set in sunny Los Angeles tackles motherhood and murder.

Only Way Out (coming 11/04/25)
A luckless thief’s wrong turn becomes a crooked cop’s fortune in a wild ride of a thriller by New York Times bestselling author (and my MFA thesis advisor and friend) Tod Goldberg.

“[T]he only element I find common to all successful writers is persistence—an overwhelming determination to succeed.”

—Sophy Burnham

SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU LAUGH

“I’ve put up with too much, too long, and now I’m just too intelligent, too powerful, too beautiful, too sure of who I am finally to deserve anything less.”

—Sandra Cisneros

Leanne Phillips
Writer | Book Coach | Editor
​leannephillips.com

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